Dracula as a novel is one deeply associated with the history of British literature, especially since the main chunk of the novel itself takes place in London. To herald the book as a British masterpiece is to erase some of its own history. This novel holding currents of British anxiety of reverse invasion by those they once conquered was written by an Irishman. Though Stoker was a Protestant and a Loyalist in his time, he grew up in County Sligo and would have seen first hand the oppression of Irish Catholicism by the English Church. Even in his higher education at Trinity College Dublin, Stoker would have been made aware of the British attempts to extinguish Irish culture and religion, as until the early 1900s only Protestant students were admitted into the university. By acknowledging the religious climate that Stoker was raised and educated in, the way that religion works within Dracula becomes incredibly interesting.
It can’t be a coincidence that the only effective ways of warding off Dracula and other vampires stem from religious traditions that the British Empire would have been trying to erase in Ireland. When Harker was first offered the crucifix, he almost did not accept it because of his idea of himself as a “Good English Churchman” (Stoker, 11). According to Longman in his Anthology of the Victorian Age the religious life of England was very strict in its simplicity: “Anti-Catholic, Bible-oriented, concerned with humanitarian issues, and focused on the salvation of individual souls within a rigid framework of Christian conduct, Evangelicalism dominated the religious and often the social life of working- and middle class- Britons” (Longman, 1056). Therefore, the crucifix, a commonly worn item among Catholics during this time, would have been seen as straying from the straight-forward path of religion laid out by the Bible and other rigid constructs of the Victorian Age. This makes it interesting that even though Britain was so anti-Catholic at this time, it is the Catholic symbol that is effective against Dracula.
The coach ride that Harker takes to meet Dracula’s coach in the woods is a particularly lasting image of the importance of and faith in catholic tradition in this region. “By the roadside were many crosses, and as we swept by, my companions all crossed themselves. Here and there was a peasant man or woman kneeling before a shrine, who did not even turn round as we approached…” (Stoker, 14). The shrines that Harker described were not an acceptable form of worship in Evangelical England, as shrines tended to be decorated and elaborate, and they are physical representations of what is being worshiped, which would not have been accepted out of fear of idol worship. Therefore, a solution for the evil that awaits Harker does not reside in his own religious traditions, but in those of the land he is exploring.
Catholicism is a strong factor in what makes both the Transylvanians and the Irish ‘other’ in the eyes of the Evangelical British. Therefore the implications of the Catholic traditions being capable of defending people against Dracula, while simple faith in God that Evangelicals subscribe to so as to not complicate worship not being able to accomplish the same, appears to be a commentary on the whether or not the English are truly correct, or best, in their religious traditions. This then calls into question their legitimacy in forcing colonized nations, like Stoker’s Ireland, into adopting British religious preferences.
This is an interesting post on the relationship between Catholicism and Anglicanism – I think you could complicate your main point by talking about the Oxford Movement, which was an English religious trend of the 19th century that tried to make the Church of England more like the Catholic Church in its practice. Could Harker/Stoker be reacting against, not Catholicism itself, but a perceived change in the established religion of England? Does the Oxford Movement help call into question the legitimacy of the Evangelical movement, as you argue Dracula does?